Faraday to Charles Caleb Atkinson   6 June 18491

Royal Institution | 6 June 1849

Sir

I grieve to perceive that there is some misunderstanding at University College; with which I am, to my great surprize, in part mixed up, much against my inclination. I cannot but suppose that the whole is due to some explainable mistake. I would not intrude into the matter, except under the necessity of vindicating my own consistency. I have uniformly for many years past refused to give certificates of eligibility; and I have, in accordance with that resolution, given none for any of the candidates for the vacant chair at your college. I have been spoken to by several respecting the persons who are candidates2. I have refused to compare them, or give an opinion on their eligibility to the particular position now to be filled: but have answered enquiries as to general scientific rank as accurately as I could. I had been given to understand that I had been quoted for an opinion of Dr. Percy, very unlike that which I was known to entertain; (but there must, I think, here be some mistake.) I repeated my opinion in conversation to Dr Grant3, and he has very faithfully reported it, in his letter of 18th May4. What I (for my own consistency) wish you and all concerned to understand, is, that neither in that conversation (or letter) or at any other time have I departed from my rule of not giving a certificate of fitness for a particular office[.]

Allow me to hope that you will make this letter known to the Council, or to any other body in the College, which may otherwise think I have falsified my rule of conduct in these matters:- and allow me, further, to hope that all uneasy feeling in regard to this affair will in the end, and shortly be entirely removed5[.]

I have the honor to be | Sir | Your Very Obedient Servant | M. Faraday

C.C. Atkinson Esq | &c &c &c | Secretary

1
Charles Caleb Atkinson (1793-1869, B1). Secretary of University College London, 1835-1867.
2
That is for the Professorship of Practical Chemistry at University College to which Alexander William Williamson was appointed. UCL MS Council Minutes, 4, 16 June 1849.
3
Robert Edmond Grant (1793-1874, DNB). Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology at University College London, 1827-1874.
4
Although the appointment was made by the Council of University College, the Senate of the College had an advisory role. Grant, as Dean of the Medical Faculty, chaired the committee which the Senate established to consider the applicants for the position. Though not supported either by the committee or by the Senate, Grant championed Percy’s appointment and was strongly opposed to Williamson’s. This position he made plain in a minute in UCL MS Senate Minutes, 2, 18 May 1849 where he praised Percy by writing that his abilities as an analytic chemist had been “attested by the highest authorities”. This view is presumably a reference to the content of Grant’s letter of the same date (and may even be the same document) discussed here by Faraday. The immediate cause of Faraday’s annoyance must have lain with the Council discussion of the matter on 2 June 1849, but the minutes (UCL MS Council Minutes, 4, 2 June 1849) do not reveal the nature of the debate.
5
UCL MS Committee of Management Minutes, 13 June 1849, noted that this letter, together with letter 2196, was read to the Committee of Management who forwarded them to Senate and its committee. UCL MS Senate Minutes, 2, 15 June 1849, noted the letters and overruled further delaying tactics by Grant so that Williamson was appointed the following day (see note 2).

Please cite as “Faraday2194,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2194